Evocative World War II-era film following a troop train: the coordination of effort; its staging and assembly of cars, cargo and passengers; its heavily guarded journey through the American countryside; and the food, sleep, exercise, training, drilling and recreation of its soldier-passengers.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: U.S. Office of War Information
Sponsor: U.S. Office of War Information
Audio/Visual: Sd, B&W
Keywords: World War II: Logistics; World War II: Homefront; Transportation: Railroad

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: Scribble - - November 12, 2008
Subject: cold water in the face...
Great film with lots of nice visuals...I always get a bit teary eyed whenever I watch anything to do with WWII and it makes me sad and grateful to think of the enormous sacrifices Americans (and lots of us Canadians as well) made.

But there is a scene near the end of the film when a young soldier turns to the African American porter and addresses him as "boy" that just reminds me how many Americans were fighting racism back home as well as abroad...

Reviewer: Spuzz - - May 2, 2005
Subject: Where's Bjork when you need her?
Great little film about how one whole troops is transported. vehicles and all, across the country. Told with no narration, the film follows the load up of vehicles, the load up of men (love the fact they would have a marching band to send them off) and finally, the train is off! it goes through the country with some great shots here. Apparantly, noone has ever been in a train before as they havent seen a berth. The troops are allowed out for a bit of exercise and a bit of frolic in the sun and then it ends! Awww! I could've watched more of this, because this was fun! Reccomended!
Also, watch for the homoerotic points in the film (especially in the map scene)

Reviewer: Ron C - - April 19, 2004
Subject: Troop Train and the Camp Croft Connection
This was a worthwhile download. This 1943 movie attempts to show the viewer the activities associated with the troop movement (including equipment) of a fictional armor unit. There is little dialogue, mostly titles for narration, and lots of good railroad shots.

The reason I sought this film out was a connection it has with Camp Croft, a former US Army Infantry Replacement Training Center located in South Carolina. At about the mid-point of the movie, a band (Croft's 2nd IRTC Band/163d Army Band) is shown and I assume the music is theirs as well. Troops moving past the band are from the 40th Infantry Training Battalion and the camp is shown in the background. A really neat find!

Reviewer: cashel - - September 27, 2003
Subject: reality
honest telling of a vital world war 2 story..Told in 13 minutes in b/w film without any trick or animation..

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